A Normal Twilight
by lukadarkwater
Summary: The account of how Rythian and Zoey's story comes to an end. Zoethian


Splash!  
Emily looked up from staring at the path to see that it had begun to rain. She sighed heavily and began to make her way back to the house. As she walked, she remembered when she was little and how she had run though the trees, laughing and immortal, safe in the protection of her parents love.  
"Everything is changing." She thought as she emerged from the woods.  
She had come out near the front lawn and then slowly made her way up the wide front porch that held the big swing on which her mother had first taught her to read.  
"Now Emily," Zoey had said, sitting down next to the squirming three year old. "Today I am going to introduce you to a whole bunch of new friends."  
"I thought you were going to teach me to read like you and Papa?" She had asked, confused  
Zoey smiled "I am. You'll see," she had laid a paper out with all the letters of the alphabet written on it "To read, you have to make friends with each and every one of these letters. You have to remember their names and how to say them properly or they will be sad. Now this one is called 'A' and he makes the Ah sound…"  
Emily was pulled from her daydreams as Joakim opened the door. Her younger brother carried the same sadness in his eyes that she felt in her heart and she hated not being able to save him from this pain.  
"How is he?" She managed to ask  
He sighed "Worse than before. The doctor just finished seeing him and I was about to come find you. He doesn't have much time left."  
Emily had suspected news like this, which was why she had left in the first place, but to hear it said aloud still hit her like a blow to the stomach.  
"You should come see him." Joakim said, and moved out of the doorway for her.  
Emily walked in and followed him up the stairs to their parent's bedroom.  
She opened the door and looked around the room that hadn't changed in years. To her left, on the wall adjacent to the door was an old oak dresser that held pictures of herself, Joakim, her parents, and more recently, her own daughter. Next to that, was her father's desk, where she could remember watching him as he worked and, when he was away, crawling into the big leather chair he sat on and taking comfort from its warm, safe smell. To this day, she could still recall the smell and had the urge to go sit on it, to feel the safety if offered once more.  
However, she knew she couldn't. At last, her gaze fell on the master bed. It was a grand old thing with deep purple sheets and four posts that rose to the ceiling; a place that held the escape from all the nighttime horrors of a young child. Whenever she had a bad dream, or a wild thunderstorm roused her from her sleep, she would creep into the room and cuddle between her parents where her father would always wake up and stroke her hair until she fell back to sleep.  
Now, however, her father lay alone on the bed while Zoey sat beside him on a chair, holding his hand.  
Rythian's once brown hair had faded to completely gray and his face was carved with wrinkles. The only thing that hadn't been altered by time, were his eyes that still held the same light she had known since she was born.  
As she came in, her mother looked up and smiled "Hello Emily, Joakim. You're father has been asking for you."  
Emily reached down and took her brothers hand, feeling reassured by the sight squeeze she received in return, and they walked to his bedside.  
"Papa," She said, kneeling down next to him "We are here."  
"There you kids are." He said quietly, turning to face them. "Always running off without a word to either of us."  
"We aren't running anymore, Papa. We will stay here until- until you don't need us anymore." She said, choking back the tears that threatened to come.  
"Good, good, I was just telling your mother not to forget to feed the wolves when I'm gone. She's just so forgetful."  
"Hey, I'm right here you know. I won't forget, old man." Zoey retorted from beside him.  
Rythian chuckled but dropped his voice to a fake whisper as he looked at his kids "But really, don't let her forget."  
Zoey slapped his arm playfully, causing Rythian to laugh, and, for a moment it felt like nothing had changed from Emily's childhood. That was, until Rythian was overcome with a violent coughing fit and the seriousness of the situation overshadowed the room once more.  
The hours dragged by and with each one that passed, Rythian slipped further and further away. He began to ramble about things that had happened in the past as if they were still going on and his eyes became more and more distant  
Finally, around two in the morning, he reached over and stroked Zoey's face.  
"You look beautiful tonight, love. As gorgeous as you did on the day you fell out of the sky."  
Zoey placed her hand over his, while tears began to run down her face. "You always had a way with words."  
He twined his fingers with hers and laid them down on the bed. Then he said, "I love you, Zoey. I love you my crazy girl." And with that, he breathed his last.  
"Papa?" Emily asked, leaping to him "Papa please! Open your eyes!" She frantically searched for a pulse, tears streaming down her face "Please Daddy please! Don't leave me!"  
Joakim put his arm around her shoulder. "He's gone, Em." She felt him shudder as he said his next words "They both are."  
"Wha-" Emily looked down to see her mother's head resting on the mattress; hands still twined with Rythian's.  
"Mamma," she said, dropping to her knees. "Mamma?" but there was no response.  
Joakim dropped down beside her, and pulled her to him. "They passed at the same time." He said with tears running down his face "I don't think she could stand to be without him."  
A week later, Emily stood in the forest outside of the place that used to be called Blackrock. She stood staring at the graves of her parents while she held a little girl with fiery red hair in her arms.  
"Mamma?" the little girl asked as she wiped a tear off of her mother's cheek. "What's that hole over there?"  
Emily half smiled and said softly "Let me tell you a story, little one. Let me tell you a story about a boy and a girl, and a land of magic and monsters…"

_  
_Author's Notes:_  
_Well, this is not at all what I usually write and it was actually painful to put on paper. I choose Twilight for the title because to, twilight signals the end of one age and the start of another. Someone on DA made a comment about a story about Rythian dying and I couldn't get the idea out of my head so I decided to write it! This is also in the same world of my other two fics A Normal Night and A Normal Day. Thanks as always to Midnight for editing, even though it hurt her XD_


End file.
